Chapter 41
Once the test results came back from the Research Institute, a massive weight was lifted from Bai Hewei’s shoulders.
Although the data from the institute’s tests was a bit mind-blowing, he was still human, so everything was fine.
Before this, Bai Hewei had been genuinely worried about whether he would end up dissected.
Furthermore, the researchers informed him that Cecilia had finally settled down and was willing to cooperate with their testing. At the same time, the institute had hired several private tutors to give him a crash course on everything from elementary to middle school knowledge, planning to eventually squeeze him into a public high school so he could at least get an education.
“You have no idea—that Cecilia guy knows absolutely nothing except playing video games. He doesn’t even possess basic elementary school knowledge,” a researcher gossiped with Bai Hewei, quite happy to chat. Since Bai Hewei was willing to ask, the researcher saw no reason to hold back. “As a foreigner, he can’t even spell the word ‘apple.’ He’s basically illiterate. Luckily, he actually has a bit of a knack for math. Right now, he can keep up with the elementary school math curriculum, but he’s lagging way behind in everything else. Plus, he has to wear a translation device long-term; otherwise, he can’t even understand what people are saying.”
“That really sounds rough,” Bai Hewei remarked, momentarily stunned. Then he asked, “In his situation, can he actually obtain our citizenship and attend a public school?”
“Cecilia doesn’t have citizenship to begin with,” the researcher said, shrugging. “There isn’t much information about him internationally, either. So, the higher-ups contacted a married couple of overseas Chinese scientists who never had children and happen to be planning to return and develop their careers in the country. We had them complete some paperwork to register Cecilia under their names. Once these scientists’ return application is approved, Cecilia will naturally gain our citizenship. With flawless documentation, it won’t matter even if the ASEAN people come looking for him later.”
As far as anyone was concerned, Cecilia was a Huaxia citizen whose parents were overseas elites, and he had simply been kidnapped by an illegal organization when he was young.
You can even do that?
Bai Hewei pretty much understood the workaround now, which made him think of Pullman’s situation, which seemed even more troublesome.
“Minors are easier to handle,” the researcher nodded. “As for that Pullman, you should keep an eye out too. The reputation of those siblings internationally isn’t great, but they really haven’t killed any of our citizens, so the higher-ups probably won’t bar them from entering the country. Still, once those siblings arrive, they’re bound to bring you a lot of trouble.”
“Even without them, I have no shortage of trouble,” Bai Hewei said in all sincerity.
“True.”
“I’ve requested a day off on your behalf.” Wen Zhiyi walked over, gesturing to the others that they could pack up and leave.
“It’s already almost eight in the morning. You can go back and rest today, then return to work tomorrow.”
“Alright, thank you, Chief.” Bai Hewei felt that Chief Wen was quite nice to him, though he couldn’t understand why the other researchers seemed so terrified of the man.
“Thank you for your cooperation, Comrade Bai.” Wen Zhiyi extended his hand.
Bai Hewei shook it.
“Not at all, it’s you guys who have had it rough,” Bai Hewei said sheepishly. “I’m sorry for making so many of you pull an all-nighter with me.”
“It is our duty.” Wen Zhiyi quickly released Bai Hewei’s hand. “If you ever have any questions regarding the use of your abilities in the future, you can contact me anytime. This is my phone number.”
Bai Hewei immediately entered Wen Zhiyi’s number into his phone.
This was a big shot from the Research Institute; he would definitely be a useful contact to have in the future.
Wen Zhiyi and his team were preparing to head out.
“Oh, right, Chief Wen, I wanted to ask… is the recruitment process for your Research Institute very difficult?” Bai Hewei suddenly asked.
Wen Zhiyi turned around.
“It’s nothing, just asking for a friend,” Bai Hewei said in a low voice.
It was a pity that Mister Number One, along with that cute little robot, had flown straight back in their helicopter right after leaving the border.
“Different branches of the Research Institute have different recruitment standards, and many excellent researchers focus more on practical application rather than academic papers. Therefore, quite a few people from local research institutes manage to advance to the Central Research Institute,” Wen Zhiyi replied after a moment of thought. “The Research Institute is different from other departments; there is no such thing as special recruitment or merit-based recruitment. If you are thinking of taking the exam for our institute, I would suggest you give up.”
Wen Zhiyi knew Bai Hewei was a bit anxious about failing the civil service exam, but the Research Institute really wasn’t suited for him.
Even if he did come, he couldn’t be a researcher—he would only end up as a research subject.
“No, no, you misunderstand, that friend really isn’t me,” Bai Hewei said, not knowing whether to laugh or cry. “It’s a friend I met before. He helped me several times and is incredibly knowledgeable. I think he definitely has the strength to pass the exam, he’s just had some bad luck.”
Only then did Wen Zhiyi realize who Bai Hewei was talking about.
The atmosphere fell into a strange, subtle silence.
“Chief, we’re all packed up, and the helicopter is waiting.” Several researchers ran over. Though they were speaking to Wen Zhiyi, their eyes were sparkling as they looked at Bai Hewei.
An all-rounder Evolver.
A whole new breed!
If they could publish a paper on this, it would definitely be cited countless times.
“We will take our leave first.” Wen Zhiyi politely bid Bai Hewei farewell, then led his people away in an orderly fashion.
All the instruments and equipment that had filled the local research institute were completely packed away by the spatial-type Evolver, leaving the entire facility empty in an instant.
Once the helicopter took off and vanished from sight, the personnel blockading the traffic also began to withdraw step by step.
Luo Chuan was waiting in a car for Bai Hewei to come down.
“All done with the tests?” Luo Chuan waved when he saw Bai Hewei. “Do you want me to drop you off at work, or are you heading home?”
“Home, please. Thank you, Captain Luo,” Bai Hewei said politely.
“Don’t mention it.” Luo Chuan looked at his captain-level internal group chat, where everyone was practically going wild with discussion.
It was entirely about the various records Bai Hewei had shattered.
And that was while he was wearing limiters.
“Oh dear, I forgot to return this limiter to the institute.” Bai Hewei looked down, noticing the limiter hanging around his neck, and finally remembered.
“It’s fine, the institute isn’t short on those things.” Through the rearview mirror, Luo Chuan saw the Evolver pendant and the limiter hanging from Bai Hewei’s neck, and his own aura instantly deflated.
Good grief. Even while wearing two powerful limiters, the guy still possessed such terrifying destructive power.
How was this even human?
If Ultraman and a Super Saiyan showed up, he could probably throw hands with them face-to-face.
If Bai Hewei were only slightly stronger than them, Luo Chuan and the others might still feel a bit indignant. But now that the gap was this astronomical, they had no choice but to be utterly convinced.
After dropping Bai Hewei off at home, Luo Chuan finally replied in the internal group chat.
After thinking it over, Luo Chuan gave his mother a phone call.
“Mom, what you said before was right. There’s always a higher sky and someone better out there. I shouldn’t have thought I was hot stuff just because I’m an A-class Evolver with a pair of bird wings who can fly. A person really needs to find a reliable organization and earn a government paycheck.” Luo Chuan expressed his heartfelt gratitude to his mother. “It’s all thanks to you forcing me to take that exam back then.”
Otherwise, if he were still wandering around outside without a government job, how badly would he have been thrashed when he eventually crossed paths with Bai Hewei?
“…Son, did working overtime break your brain? Since you know I was right, then you know everything your mother does is for your own good. Recently, your neighbor Auntie introduced a girl to me. She’s a tenured teacher, and she’s very pretty. Find some time to come back and meet her…”
Luo Chuan hung up the phone.
He could listen to his mother’s advice on other things, but blind dates were out of the question.
Bai Hewei slept happily at home. By nightfall, his parents and grandmother returned from their trip, bringing back all sorts of local specialty gift packs—every single one of them a tourist trap scam.
Fortunately, they didn’t have much spare money to begin with, so spending a bit for the novelty was harmless enough.
Life seemed to return to its normal track.
“Xiao Bai, the centralized annual leave is coming up soon. Where do you plan to go this year?”
With the arrival of summer, the thing that excited the office colleagues the most wasn’t anything else, but the upcoming annual leave.
In the past, annual leave was mostly just for show; many people couldn’t actually take it, and the leaders would look incredibly reluctant every time someone requested time off. But after “Evolution Day,” annual leave became strictly enforced.
For no other reason than the fact that the overall economic environment was getting worse. If they didn’t grant annual leave and let people go out to spend money, the economy would truly become a stagnant pool of water, beyond saving.
Since then, they had even established an annual leave audit system. If a unit failed to implement annual leave properly, their performance scores would be docked. Furthermore, regular sick leave or personal leave couldn’t be counted against annual leave deductions.
This was also one of the reasons why many grassroots cadres didn’t actually resent Evolvers as much as the general public did.
After all, it was only after Evolution Day that they finally got to enjoy proper annual leave.
Before that, they belonged to the special category of “the Earth won’t explode, so the grassroots don’t get time off,” and “if the grassroots take a break, the Earth will stop spinning.”
Alleviating the burden on the grassroots had been shouted as a slogan for so many years without any real results, but this annual leave policy was the one thing thoroughly carried out.
“I plan to take my whole family to the capital. My parents have always dreamed of watching the national flag-raising ceremony, and there are other scenic spots they want to visit. In the past, when they went with those unscrupulous tour groups, they just rushed through the sights and spent most of their time cooped up in shopping stores. This time, I’m taking them on a pure leisure trip to properly unwind,” Bai Hewei said without hesitation.
“Xiao Bai is so filial.”
“Exactly. Most young people who get some money think about upgrading their cars or houses, but Xiao Bai thinks about taking his family out to play. That’s really rare nowadays,” an older colleague sighed. “If only I had a daughter, I would definitely try to set you two up.”
Bai Hewei stole a glance at the older colleague’s perfectly square face and short, stocky build, and didn’t dare respond to the compliment.
“Oh right, Xiao Bai, our department needs to take leave in shifts. I have twenty days of annual leave and plan to take it all in one go to escape the summer heat. You’d better coordinate with the others too; the department can’t be left completely empty.”
“I know, I know.” Bai Hewei naturally understood. Wasn’t he still waiting for news from the Special Operations Department?
He had to wait until Director Yuan officially called for a meeting before he could request time off.
Inside the Central Research Institute.
All of Bai Hewei’s data, along with his drawn blood samples, had already been sealed away.
Even members of the Central Research Institute had to go through a rigorous approval process with leadership signatures just to apply for access.
The prediction results of Bai Hewei’s abilities were both within everyone’s expectations and far beyond them.
“If we hadn’t used the limiters, those testing instruments would probably have been fried.”
“Yeah, but when he isn’t using evolutionary energy, he’s just like an ordinary person. The only explanation is that the configuration of the evolutionary factors inside his body is simply too mind-boggling. How could it allow a human to burst forth with such massive energy in such a short period of time?”
“It doesn’t make sense either. With such powerful energy, Bai Hewei was just an ordinary person before awakening. How did his body withstand it? Ordinary Evolvers usually feel unwell for a period of time before awakening.”
“If we knew everything, what would be the point of our research?”
“True.”
The researchers gathered in a meeting, each voicing their own opinions.
Yet, Wen Zhiyi remained entirely silent.
“Chief, your prediction back then was entirely correct. Why do you look so unhappy?”
“It’s nothing. You all continue the discussion, I’ll go back and rest for a bit.” Wen Zhiyi pinched the bridge of his nose. “I have to write a report later.”
“Then you should go rest first.”
“Yes, yes, we’ll leave the report to you, Chief.”
Every time there was a material report to be submitted to the higher-ups, Wen Zhiyi would write it personally.
It wasn’t that the others refused to help, but rather that the reports they wrote were far too technical, making it impossible for laymen to understand.
A good report had to be written in a way that even if the leaders knew absolutely nothing, they would understand it perfectly upon reading.
Therefore, Wen Zhiyi had to do it himself. It was faster to write it from scratch than to spend time editing their drafts.
Wen Zhiyi returned to his office for a one-hour nap. Once his energy had recovered a bit, he initiated a video call with Director Yuan Heqing.
“I have a rough understanding of Bai Hewei’s situation now.” Seeing Wen Zhiyi’s slightly fatigued expression, Yuan Heqing’s voice was gentle. “Zhiyi, you don’t need to be too tense. The current results have already exceeded our wildest imaginations, haven’t they?”
“Yes.” Wen Zhiyi nodded. “Based on the current situation, there is still room for Bai Hewei’s abilities to grow. Moreover, that night of wishing upon the meteor shower was likely just the catalyst that triggered his recent awakening. His actual awakening time should be much earlier than any currently known Evolver.”
After Evolution Day, a massive influx of various Evolvers began to emerge across the globe.
But that didn’t mean there were no Evolvers before Evolution Day.
It was just that before that day arrived, the general public’s impression of “Evolvers” and “superpowers” was confined to the settings of movies and television dramas.
In reality, Evolvers had always existed.
They were just very rare and hid among the crowd, never easily exposing themselves.
The earliest confirmed Evolver in recorded history appeared in a classified file from America.
The timeline dated back twenty years.
At that time, a corpse covered in countless bullet wounds—shot beyond recognition—was delivered to an American research lab.
Yet, it had taken several mercenary groups equipped with advanced weaponry to successfully kill this single body.
The researchers at the time dissected every part of the corpse but didn’t find anything too bizarre, except for an unrecognized substance present inside the person’s body, which they then preserved.
Over the next twenty years, Evolvers cropped up sporadically. However, compared to the global population, their numbers were negligible. Furthermore, even if these Evolvers possessed abilities, they were incredibly weak—at most equivalent to the current C-class or D-class levels—making them no match for modern militaries. Consequently, the news was naturally suppressed and kept entirely from the outside world.
Back then, whether it was Wen Zhiyi or scientists from other countries, everyone used every means available to infiltrate America’s private research labs to participate in the research on Evolvers.
But the financial conglomerates backing those private labs were no pushovers; they kept the information under lock and key, making it incredibly difficult to get anywhere near it.
It was only because Yuan Heqing pulled strings behind the scenes, combined with the state’s desire to uncover the secret, that Wen Zhiyi managed to infiltrate after an immense expenditure of effort.
During his infiltration, Wen Zhiyi gained access to a vast amount of data, which was then transmitted back to the country with the help of secret agents.
This included various records of drug trials on Evolver bodies, dissection research materials, and corresponding data comparisons.
Such things could never be permitted in domestic laboratories, but abroad, there were absolutely no morals or laws to govern them.
No one knew how many long-embedded agents were sacrificed. In fact, more than half of the researchers who had infiltrated alongside Wen Zhiyi died, and Wen Zhiyi himself had come dangerously close to being exposed.
Wen Zhiyi had assumed he was going to die, but unexpected luck arrived the very day before he was about to be discovered.
Evolution Day began.
A massive, explosive wave of Evolvers began to appear.
This dealt a massive blow to the monopoly of private research labs.
Those financial conglomerates suddenly found themselves with far more choices.
Everyone was caught completely off guard by this sudden change. No one had the spare time to care whether Wen Zhiyi was a spy or not, because many of the subjects undergoing research and drug testing inside the labs had awakened their own abilities and begun to exact their revenge within the underground facilities.
Wen Zhiyi took the opportunity to escape, bringing the final set of data back to the country.
Due to his monumental contributions, coupled with his leading expertise in Evolver research, he was exceptionally promoted to Chief of the Central Research Institute.
The landscape of all research facilities worldwide was rewritten.
An Evolver corpse, which had previously required grueling effort to obtain, could be found everywhere after Evolution Day. They were even openly priced on the black market, with different types of Evolver corpses commanding different values.
This evolutionary outbreak had occurred too quickly and fiercely, sweeping across the globe. Even the most powerful media outlets had no way to suppress the news, leaving them with no choice but to make it public.
Thus began the era of cohabitation between Evolvers and ordinary humans.
The research institutes and organizations around the world also tacitly agreed that “Evolution Day” was the starting point of everything, firmly burying the news that Evolvers had existed years prior.
It was precisely because they had conducted research early on that those powerful nations were able to rapidly establish corresponding institutes and secure an advantage once Evolvers appeared.
Otherwise, how could they have developed so rapidly in a mere five years?
But certain people knew perfectly well that many Evolvers had actually been discovered long ago.
They had simply adopted fake names and hidden away out of fear before, whereas now they could appear out in the open.
“Bai Hewei’s strength cannot exist without a cause,” Wen Zhiyi said seriously. “I suspect he has actually undergone a secondary or even tertiary awakening, but for some reason, he always maintained the appearance of a normal person. This is theoretically feasible, because the stronger the ability, the longer the incubation period. Otherwise, there is no way to explain why he attained the strength of the world’s strongest Evolver overnight, and learned to control the power inside his body within just a few days.”
Across various regions of the world, there were bound to be other Evolvers who had undergone a secondary awakening, though they might be using different identities to disguise themselves.
The Evolvers who hadn’t been captured or traced before Evolution Day were all people who knew how to protect themselves and blend in.
Therefore, they wouldn’t easily reveal themselves to the public either.
However, these people would only continue to exist; they wouldn’t vanish.
“For now, this is merely a hypothesis,” Yuan Heqing said with a smile. “But regardless, the current situation is favorable. During my last meeting, a tiny minority of countries proposed starting initiatives to induce evolution in ordinary people and trigger secondary evolution in existing Evolvers. Although the proposal was vetoed, they are already doing it covertly. The so-called Evolver serums are merely byproducts of their attempts at secondary evolution.”
Once people tasted power, they would naturally crave more.
Many wealthy elites and high-ranking officials abroad understood perfectly well that the only reason they could still suppress Evolvers was because the number of Evolvers was vastly lower than that of ordinary people, and modern technology could suppress the vast majority of them. The few Evolvers who didn’t fear modern weapons simply couldn’t stir up much of a storm on their own.
However, it had only been five years since Evolution Day. What about ten or twenty years down the line? What would the world look like then?
No matter how strong healing-type Evolvers were, or how many organs they could replace, the best way to truly achieve eternal youth and possess power was to awaken as an Evolver oneself.
Only then could they ensure that the wealth they accumulated over generations wouldn’t be snatched away.
Yet, for ordinary people to awaken as Evolvers, it required far more than just theory—it required countless human lives to be piled up before even a fraction of a result could emerge.
Similarly, the secondary awakening of an Evolver also demanded the lives of countless other Evolvers.
In the face of such greed and desire, whether one was an Evolver or an ordinary person, they were merely subjects to be oppressed and manipulated at will.
“Right, the neutralizing agent for the third version of the Evolver serum has been fully decoded by us, and the first replica has already been produced. Once the replica passes testing, we will mass-produce and market it abroad within three months. Currently, the profits from the first batch of neutralizing agents should be enough to cover half of our Research Institute’s funding expenditures.” Speaking up to this point, a rare flash of happiness appeared on Wen Zhiyi’s face.
The funding issues for their Research Institute had always been a massive headache.
The Special Operations Department incurred no small amount of expenses, but the Research Institute required far more.
Given the current gloomy economic climate, the approved funding was always cut short.
While the Special Operations Department could still develop a few “Evolver merchandise” items and build personal IPs to rake in money, most of the institute’s creations were targeted specifically at Evolvers, making it a victory just to break even.
Fortunately, they now had a replicated medication, which could alleviate a significant portion of their financial crisis.
“I will discuss this with the leaders of the Food and Drug Administration and the Health Commission to get it onto the market for you as smoothly as possible through official channels. The profits obtained then will be re-allocated to you in the form of research funding,” Yuan Heqing assured.
